Monday, December 21, 2009
An Introduction to 3D on the Mac, Part I: Models & Textures
Ars Technica has published An introduction to 3D on the Mac, Part I: models & textures:
“If you’re just getting into 3D rendering on the Mac and are overwhelmed by the number of packages and approaches, Ars is here to help. We take you step-by-step through rendering and texturing a 3D model, with videos and advice on tools and techniques.”
The landscape of CG applications is vast and very confusing to 3D graphics newbies. These apps span the gamut from free modelers to beefy, Python-scriptable animation packages, standalone renderers and a lot of little programs that glue them all together into a complex and intimidating workflow. People looking to get into game development know that ZBrush is popular, but Mudbox looks good, too, so they’re at a loss over which to learn. Program X looks like it does everything, but does it? What’s “ambient occlusion” and why would I ever need it? These questions and more will complicate life for the aspiring 3D newb.
3D magazines provide helpful tutorials, but since every application is also a potential advertiser, they tend to avoid saying that one package is best for a particular task, or that program X really sucks at particle animation, and so on. This two-part series will cover these differences while discussing specific workflows where these packages are used in areas like character modeling, motion graphics for TV or photorealistic rendering for architectural visualization. By the end of this first article, you should have an idea of how to approach modeling, sculpting, and texturing to achieve professional-looking results; the second article will focus on animation and rendering. You will still have lots of questions at the end, but 3D is inherently complex so there’s not much getting around that. Think of this article as an introduction to the very basics.
Read the full eleven page tutorial (there are also videos). Ars Premier Subscribers can view it all on one page or download it as a PDF. The second (and final) part is to be: Rendering and Animation.